The Chicago race riots

V •'•' ^.r °-^ "''■' *° ^ '" A,*- ..

'' J

./^ ^^^£^^^ ^

THE
CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

JULY, 1919

BY

CARL SANDBURG

WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE

By WALTER LIPPMANN

m

NEW YORK

HARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE

1919

COPYRIGHT, I919, BY
HARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE, INC.

CEC I2ii)i9

©C1.A559013

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

To record the background of an event, Infinitely more
disgraceful than that Mexican banditry or Red Terror
about which we are all so virtuously Indignant, is suffi-
cient reason for republishing these articles by Carl Sand-
burg. They are first hand, and they are sympathetic,
and they will move those who will allow themselves to
be moved.

Moved not alone to Indignation, though that is needed,
but to thought. It Is not possible, I think, to examine
this record without concluding that the race problem as
we know it is really a by-product of our planless, dis-
ordered, bedraggled, drifting democracy. Until we have
learned to house everybody, employ everybody at decent
wages In a self-respecting status, guarantee his civil liber-
ties, and bring education and play to him, the bulk of our
talk about "the race problem" will remain a sinister myth-
ology. In a dirty civilization the relation between black
men and white will be a dirty one. In a clean civilization
the two races can conduct their business together cleanly,
and not until then.

Certainly the Idea must go that in order to segregate
the races biologically It Is necessary to degrade and ter-
rorize one of them. For those who degrade and terror-
ize are inevitably themselves degraded and terror-
stricken. It is only the parvenue, the snob, the coward
who is forever proclaiming his superiority. And by

iii

iv INTRODUCTORY NOTE

proclaiming It he evokes Imitation In his victim. Hence
the peculiar oppressiveness of recently oppressed peoples
in Europe. Hence the Negro who desires to be an imita-
tion white man. Hence again the determination to sup-
press the Negro who attempts to imitate the white man.
For so long as the status of the white man is In every way
superior to that of the colored, the advancement of the
colored man can mean nothing but an attempt to share the
white man's social privileges. From this arises that ter-
rible confusion between the idea of social equality and the
idea of social mixture.

Since permanent degradation Is unthinkable, and amal-
gamation undesirable both for blacks and whites, the Ideal
would seem to lie in what might be called race parallel-
ism. Parallel lines may be equally long and equally
straight; they do not join except in infinity, which is
further away than anyone need worry about just now.
We shall have to work out with the Negro a relationship
which gives him complete access to all the machinery of
our common civilization, and yet allows him to live so
that no Negro need dream of a white heaven and of
bleached angels. Pride of race will come to the Negro
when a dark skin is no longer associated with poverty,
Ignorance, misery, terror and Insult. When this pride
arises every white man in America will be the happier
for It. He will be able then, as he is not now, to enjoy
the finest quality of civilized living — ^the fellowship of
different men.

Walter Lippman.
Whitestone, Long Island.
August 26, 19 19.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ^^^^

I.— The Chicago Race Riots i

II. — The Background 5

III. — The Negro Migration 9

IV.— Real Estate I3

V. — Demand for Negro Labor I7

VI. — New Industrial Opportunities 22

VII. — After Each Lynching 26

VIIL— Trades for Colored Women 31

IX. — Negroes and Rising Rents 38

X. — Unions and the Color Line 44

XL — About Lynchings 5i

XII.— Negro Crime Tales 55

XIII.— Colored Gamblers 59

XIV.— An Official of the Packers 63

XV. — Mr. Julius Rosenwald Interviewed 66

XVL— For Federal Action 69

I

THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

The so-called race riots In Chicago during the last
week of July, 19 19, started on a Sunday at a bathing
beach. A colored boy swam across an Imaginary segre-
gation line. White boys threw rocks at him and knocked
him off a raft. He was drowned. Colored people rushed
to a policeman and asked for the arrest of the boys throw-
ing stones. The policeman refused. As the dead body
of the drowned boy was being handled, more rocks were
thrown, on both sides. The policeman held on to his
refusal to make arrests. Fighting then began that spread
to all the borders of the Black Belt. The score at the
end of three days was recorded as twenty negroes dead,
fourteen white men dead, and a number of negro houses
burned.

The riots furnished an excuse for every element of
Gangland to go to It and test their prowess by the most
ancient ordeals of the jungle. There was one section of
the city that supplied more white hoodlums than any
other section. It was the district around the stockyards
and packing houses.

I asked Maclay Hoyne, states attorney of Cook
County, *'Does it seem to you that you get more tough
birds from out around the stockyards than anywhere else
in Chicago?" And he answered that more bank robbers,
payroll bandits, automobile bandits, highwaymen and
strong-arm crooks come from this particular district than

2 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

any other that has come to his notice during seven years
of service as chief prosecuting official.

And I recalled that a few years ago a group of people
from the University of Chicago came over into the stock-
yards district and made a survey. They went into one
neighborhood and asked at every house about how the
people lived — and died. They found that seven times as
many white hearses haul babies along the streets here as
over in the lake shore district a mile east. Their state-
ment of scientific fact was that the infant mortality was
seven times higher here proportionately, than a mile to
the east in a district where housing and wages are differ-
ent.

So on the one hand we have blind lawless government
failing to function through policemen Ignorant of Lincoln,
the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, and a
theory sanctioned and baptized in a storm of red blood.
And on the other hand we have a gaunt involuntary pov-
erty from which Issues the hoodlum.
n/ At least three conditions marked the events of violence
in Chicago in July, 19 19, and gave the situation a char-
acter essentially different from the backgrounds of other
riots. Here are factors that give the Chicago flare-up
historic import:

1. The Black Belt population of 50,000 in Chicago
was more than doubled during the war. No new houses
or tenements were built. Under pressure of war industry
the district, already notoriously overcrowded and swarm-
ing with slums, was compelled to have and hold in Its
human dwelling apparatus more than twice as many peo-
ple as It held before the war.

2. The Black Belt of Chicago is probably the strong-
est effective unit of political power, good or bad, in

THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS 3

America. It connects directly with a city administration
decisive in its refusal to draw the color line, and a mayor
whose opponents failed to defeat him with the covert
circulation of the epithet of "nigger lover." To such a
community the black doughboys came back from France
and the cantonment camps. Also it is known that hun-
dreds— it may be thousands — have located in Chicago in
the hope of permanent jobs and homes in preference to
returning south of Mason and Dixon's line, where neither
a tvorld war for democracy, nor the Croix de Guerre, nor
three gold chevrons, nor any number of wound stripes,
assures them of the right to vote or to have their votes
counted or to participate riesponslbly In the elective deter-
minations of the American republic.

3. Thousands of white men and thousands of colored
men stood together during the riots, and through the pub-
lic statements of white and colored officials of the Stock-
yards Labor Council asked the public to witness that
they were shaking hands as "brothers" and could not be
counted on for any share in the mob shouts and ravages.
This was the first time in any similar crisis in an Ameri-
can community that a large body of mixed nationalities
and races — Poles, Negroes, Lithuanians, Italians, Irish-
men, Germans, Slovaks, Russians, Mexicans, Yankees,
Englishmen, Scotchmen — proclaimed that they were or-
ganized and opposed to violence between white union
men and colored union men.

In any American city where the racial situation Is criti-
cal at this moment, the radical and active factors prob-
ably are (i) housing (2) politics and war psychology
and (3) organization of labor.

/ The articles that follow are reprints from the pages
'of the Chicago Daily News, which assigned the writer to

4 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

investigate the situation three weeks before the riots
began. Publication of the articles had proceeded two
weeks and were approaching the point where a program
of constructive recommendations would have been proper
when the riots broke and as usual nearly everybody was
more interested in the war than how it got loose.

The arrangement of the material herewith is all
rather hit or miss, with the stress often in the wrong
place, as in much newspaper writing. However, because
of the swift movement of events at this hour and because
items of Information and views of trends here have been
asked for In telegrams, letters and phone calls from a
number of thoughtful people, they are made conveniently
available for such service as they are worth.

II

THE BACKGROUND

Chicago's *'black belt," so called, to-day holds at least
125,000 persons. This Is double the number that same
district held five years ago, when the world war began.

Chicago Is probably the third city In the United States
in number of colored persons and, at the lowest, ranks as
fifth In this regard, according to estimates of Frederick
Rex, municipal reference librarian. The four cities that
may possibly exceed Chicago In this population group
are New York, which had 91,709 at the last census; Bal-
timore, with 84,749; Philadelphia, with 84,459, ^^^
Washington, with 94,466. The colored population In all
these cities has increased since the last census.

New Orleans, which had 89,262, has decreased instead
of gaining, and the same will apply to three other large
southern cities where the colored population at the begin-
ing of the war was slightly above 50,000 and just about
equal to that of Chicago. These are Birmingham, Ala.,
Atlanta, Ga., and Memphis, Tenn., all reported to have
decreased, while Chicago has gained.

During Interviews with some forty persons more or
less expert on the question the lowest estimate of the
present colored population of Chicago was 100,000 and
the highest 200,000. The figure most commonly agreed
on was 125,000. There Is no doubt that upward of 150-
000 have arrived here. The number that have departed
for other points is unknown.

5

6 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

Under the pressure of the biggest over-crowding prob-
lem any race or nation has faced in a Chicago neighbor-
hood, the population of the district is spilling over, oi:
rather Is being Irresistibly squeezed out into other resi-
dence districts.

Such is the Immediately large and notable fact touching
what Is generally called "the race problem."

Other facts pertaining to the situation, each one indi-
cating a trend of Importance, are the following:

Local draft board No. 4 In a district surrounding State
and 35th streets, containing 30,000 persons, of whom
90 per cent are colored, registered upward of 9,000 and
sent 1,850 colored men to cantonments. Of these 1,850
there were only 125 rejections. On Nov. 11, when the
armistice was declared, this district had 7,832 men passed
by examiners and ready for the call to the colors. So It
is clear that in one neighborhood are thousands of strong
young men who have been talking to each other on topics
more or less Intimately related to the questions, "What
are we ready to die for? Why do we live? What Is
democracy? What Is the meaning of freedom; of self-
determination?"

In barber shop windows and In cigar stores and haber-
dasheries are helmets, rifles, cartridges, canteens and
haversacks and photographs of negro regiments that
were sent to France.

Walk around this district and talk with the black folk
and leaders of the black folk. Ask them, "What about
the future of the colored people?" The reply that comes
most often and the thought that seems uppermost Is:
"We made the supreme sacrifice; they didn't need any
work or fight law for us ; our record, like Old Glory, the
flag we love because it stands for our freedom, hasn't got

THE BACKGROUND 7

a spot on it; we 'come clean'; now we want to see our
country live up to the constitution and the declaration of
independence."

Soldiers, ministers, lawyers, doctors, politicians, ma-
chinists, teamsters, day laborers — this is the inevitable
outstanding thought they offer when consulted about to-
morrow, next week, next year or the next century for the
colored race in America, f There is no approaching the
matters of housing, jobs or political relations of the col-
ored people to-day without taking consideration of their
own vivid conception of what they consider their unques-
tioned Americanism.

They had one bank three years ago. Now they have
five. Three co-operative societies to run stores are form-
ing. Five new weekly papers, two new monthly maga-
zines, seven drug stores, one hospital — all of these have
come since Junius B. Wood's encyclopedic recital of
negro activities in Chicago appeared in The Daily News
in December, 19 16. Also since then a life insurance
company and a building and loan association have been
organized. In one district where there were counted
sixty-nine neighborhood agencies of demoralization there
have been established within two years under negro aus-
pices, a cafe, a drug store, a laundry, a bakery, a shoe
repair shop, a tailor shop, a fish market, a dry goods
store — all told, twenty-four constructive agencies entered
the contest against sixty-nine of the destructive kind.

The colored people of Chicago seem to have more big
organizations with fewer press agents and less publicity
than any other group in the city. They have, for instance,
*the largest single protestant church membership in North
America in the Olivet Baptist church at South Park
lavenue and East 31st street. It has more than 8,500

8 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

members. The "miscellaneous" local of the Meat Cut-
ters and Butcher Workmen's union, at 43d and State
streets, reports that upward of 10,000 colored workmen
are affiliated. The People's Movement club has moved
into a $50,000 clubhouse, has 2,000 active and 6,000
associate members.

There is apparent an active home buying, home own-
ing movement, with many circumstances indicating that
the colored people coming in with the new influx are mak-
ing preparations to stay, their viewpoint being that of the
boll weevil in that famous negro song, "This'U Be My
Home.'* In nearly all circles the opinion is voiced that
Chicago is the most liberal all around town in the coun-
try, and the constitution of Illinois the most liberal of all
state constitutions. And so if they can't make Chicago
a good place for their people to live in the colored people
wonder where they can go.

Their houses, jobs, politics, their hope and outlook in
the "black belt," are topics to be considered in this series
of articles.

Ill

THE NEGRO MIGRATION

At Michigan avenue and East 31st street comes along
the street a colored woman and three of her children.
Two months ago they lived in Alabama, in a two room
hut with a dirt floor and no running water and none of
the things known as "conveniences." Barefooted and
bareheaded, the children walk along with the mother,
casually glancing at Michigan avenue's moving line of
motor cars. Suddenly, as in a movie play, a big limousine
swings to the curb. A colored man steps out, touches his
hat to the mother and children and gives them the sur-
prise of their lives. This is what he says :

"We don't do this up here. It isn't good for us col-
ored folks to send our children out on the streets like this.
We're all working together to do the best we can. One
thing we're particular about is the way we take the little
ones out on the streets.

"They ought to look as if they're washed clean all
over. And they ought to have shoes and stockings and
hats and clean shirts on. Now you go home and see to
that. If you haven't got the money to do it, come and
see me. Here's my card."

He gives her the card of a banker and real estate man
at an office where they collect rent monthly from over
1,000 tenants, and where they hold titles in fee simple to
the rented properties.

This little incident gives some idea of the task of assim-

9

10 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

ilatlon Chicago took In the last five years in handling the
more than 70,000 colored people who came here in that
time, mostly from southern states.

A big brown stone residence in Wabash avenue, of the
type that used to be known as "mansions," housed five
families from Alabama. They threw their dinner leav-
ings from the back porch. And one night they sat on the
front steps and ate watermelon and threw the rinds out
past the curbstone. In effect, they thought they were
going to live in the packed human metropolis of Chicago
just as they had lived "down In Alabam'."

Now they have learned what garbage cans are for.
From all sides the organized and Intelligent forces of
the colored people have hammered home the suggestion
that every mistake of one colored man or woman may
result in casting a reflection on the whole group. The
theory Is, "Be clean for your own sake, but remember
that every good thing you do goes to the credit of all
of us."

It must not be assumed, of course, that the types thus
far mentioned are representative of all who come from
Alabama or other states of the south. Among the recent
arrivals, for example, are a banker, the managing editor
of a weekly newspaper, a manual training instructor In the
public schools and several men who have made successes
in business. It is possible now for Chicago white people
to come into contact with colored men who have had
years of experience In direct co-operation with Tuskegee
and Hampton institutes and with the workings in south-
ern states of the theories of Booker T. Washington, W.
E. B. Du Bols and others. The application of these
theories Is being continued in Chicago.

Willis N. Hugglns, an intensely earnest and active

THE NEGRO MIGRATION ii

worker for the Interests of the colored people, Is an In-
structor in manual training at the Wendell Phillips high
school. He came from Alabama in 19 17.

*'I was making a social survey of the northern counties
of Alabama through the financial aid of Mrs. Emmons
Blaine of Chicago," he said to me. *'My work was dis-
continued because our Information collected In that terri-
tory would be useless. About one-fourth of the colored
people migrated to the north.

"There were 12,000 colored people in Decatur, Ala.,
before the war. The migration took away 4,000, judging
by a house to house canvas I made in various sections of
that one city. When they took the notion they just went.
You could see hundreds of houses where mattresses, beds,
wash bowls and pans were thrown around the back yard
after the people got throu^ picking out w'hat they
wanted to take along.

"All the railroad trains from big territory farther
south came on through Decatur. Some days five and
six of these trains came along. The colored people in
Decatur would go to the railroad station and talk with
these other people about where they were going. And
when the moving fever hit them there was no changing
their minds.

"Take Huntsville, only a few miles from Decatur, on a
branch line. There they didn't see these twelve coach
trains coming through loaded with emigrants. So from
Huntsville there was not much emigration.

"In many localities the educated negroes came right
along with their people. I rode in September, 19 17, with
a minister from Monroe, La. This was his second trip.
He had been to Boston and organized a church with 100
members of his Louisiana congregation. Now he was

12 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

taking fifty, all in one coach. I hear that later he made
a third trip and has now moved the whole of his original
congregation of 300 members up to Boston. He told me
that the first group he took to Boston were all naturally
Inclined to go. The second group made up their minds
more slowly. He said that probably they would not have
gone at all If It had not been for fears of lynching. A
series of lynchings in Texas at that time gave him exam-
ples from which to argue that the north was safer for
colored people.

"With many who have come north, the attraction of
wages and employment Is secondary to the feeling that
they are going where there are no lynchings. Others say
that while they know they would never be lynched in the
south and they are not afraid on that score, they do want
to go where they are sure there Is more equality and op-
portunity than In the south. The schools in the north are
an attraction to others.

"I make these observations from having personally
talked with my people in Madison county, Alabama,
where there were 10,000 negroes, of whom 5,000 came
north in two years."

IV
REAL ESTATE

Eight bombs or dynamite containers have been ex-
ploded within the last five months on the doorsteps of
buildings In the south division of the city, all of these
buildings being situated In streets adjacent to the resi-
dence district popularly called the "black belt,'* where the
population is about 80 per cent colored. The eight ex-
plosions took place between Feb. 5 and June 13.

The amount of property destroyed by each explosion
varied from $50 to $600. Seven of the cases were in-
vestigated by the police of the station situated at Wabash
avenue and 48th street, and one was investigated by the
police of the Cottage Grove Avenue station.

The police began their work with two theories in mind:
one that the explosions were the result of race feeling, the
other that there was a clash between two real estate inter-
ests. As a result of their work, the police now believe
that the second theory Is the more likely to be correct.

Facts In this situation to be reckoned with are that
practically every organization of colored people, busi-
ness, political, social and religious, is making propaganda
in favor of the right of the colored people to buy real
estate "wherever the white man's money Is good." On
the other hand, the only organized and noticeable propa-
ganda among white organizations in this respect Is the
movement in real estate organizations and neighborhood
improvement clubs.

13

14 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

With reference to the effect of colored residents on real
estate values, there are two points of view. It is asserted,
on one hand, that in all cases where the property owner
has kept up the improvements and refused to sell to spec-
ulators, his real estate has risen in value. On the other
hand, it is contended that colored residents bring down
property values in a neighborhood. Both sides point to
specific instances in support of their contentions.

L. M. Smith, of the Kenwood Improvement associa-
tion, a prominent spokesman for real estate interests, and
one of those most active in opposition to the movement
of colored people eastward in his part of the city, gave
the writer the following expression of his views:

'*We want to be fair. We want to do what is right.
But these people will have to be more or less pacified. At
a conference where their representatives were present, I
told them we might as well be frank about It, 'you people
are not admitted to our society,' I said. Personally, I
have no prejudice against them. I have had experience
of many years dealing with them, and I'll say this for
them : I have never had to foreclose a mortgage on one
of them. They have been clean in every way, and always
prompt In their payments. But, you know. Improve-
ments are coming along the lake shore, the Illinois Cen-
tral, and all that; we can't have these people coming over
here.

"Not one cent has been appropriated by our organiza-
tion for bombing or anything like that.

"They injure our Investments. They hurt our values.
I couldn't say how many have moved in, but there's at
least a hundred blocks that are tainted. We are not mak-
ing any threats, but we do say that something must be
done. Of course. If they come In as tenants, we can

REAL ESTATE 15

handle the situation fairly easily. But when they get a
deed, that^s another matter. Be sure to get us straight
on that. We want to be fair and do what's right."

Charles S. Duke, a Harvard graduate, former lieuten-
ant of company G, 8th Illinois infantry and a civil engi-
neer In the bridge division of the city department of
public works, expresses the view of his people as fol-
lows:

"All attempts at segregation bring only discord and
resentful opposition. The bombing of the homes of col-
ored citizens is futile. This will neither intimidate any
considerable number of them nor stop their moving into
a given district. The most certain result is bitter racial
antagonism.

"White citizens must be educated out of all hysteria
over actual or prospective arrival of colored neighbors.
All colored citizens do not make bad neighbors, although
in some cases they will not make good ones. It is of the
greatest Importance, however, both to white and colored
people, that real estate dealers should cease to make a
business of commercializing racial antagonisms."

During the series of bomb explosions from February 5
to June 13 the police made no arrests. On June 13 they
took into custody James Macherol of 4945 South State
street and James Turner of 8948^ Parnell avenue. The
charges were bomb throwing, malicious mischief and car-
rying explosives without authorization. Their cases have
been granted two continuances in Judge Gemmlll's court.
Turner Is a clerk In the real estate office of Dean &
Meagher, 320 East 51st street.

Habeas corpus proceedings in behalf of Turner were
unsuccessful In a hearing before Judge Pam. One con-
tinuance in the Hyde Park court was granted on the plea

i6 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

of the defendant's attorney that an alibi witness had gone
for a two weeks' vacation in Minnesota.
/ In the series of bombings there is little or nothing to
indicate a motive to destroy life. In one case a child was
killed. The police have evidence that in the flat next door
an Italian girl was to be married and jealous suitors had
sent threats of violence. The theory is that the dyna-
miters put the bomb on the wrong doorstep.

DEMAND FOR NEGRO LABOR

The demand for colored workers took a slump when
the armistice was signed. And the slump went on till
April. Then things began to look up. Now there has
come a strong movement toward the conditions that held
good while the war was on.

At the office of the Chicago Urban league, 3032 South
Wabash avenue, where a branch of the United States
Employment service Is maintained, the office force was
finding work for 1,700 to 1,800 men and women each
month before the armistice was signed. This figure
dropped to 500 In April. In the week ended June 14,
Secretary T. Arnold Hill, colored man and graduate of
New York university, reports 249 men and thirty-four
women, a total of 285, placed. He comments:

"At this rate we should place 1,132 persons a month,
as compared with 500 or 600 during the three months
period previous."

The following is a specimen of the demand for colored
workers on one day In June: Quartermaster's corps, U.
S. A., twenty-five men at 45 cents an hour; National
Malleable Casting Company, twenty men at 40 cents an
hour; South-eastern Coal Company, forty men at piece
rates; C, B. & Q. railroad company, ten men at 45 cents
an hour; Camp Custer, two hundred men at 45 cents an
hour; railroad workers for the state of Washington, fifty

17

l8 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

men at 45 cents an hour; Turbell Ice Cream company,
four men at $19 a week.

A bulletin of the ofEce for June 25 states:

"Unskilled work Is plentiful. Jobs In foundries and
steel mills, in building and construction work, In light
factories and packing houses, keep up a steady demand
for semi-skilled laborers."

During 191 8 there was a total of 30,000 applications
for jobs, and 10,600 persons were placed.

It is believed a record somewhat like this will be main-
tained again this year; that is, a steady Influx of colored
population, almost entirely from southern states, will
keep on coming and will be absorbed by northern Indus-
try. The amount of this influx will not be as large as in
the last year or two, but It is expected to be steady. It
will have the same steady flow, according to men closely in
touch with It, as the stream of immigration from Europe
that kept coming to America's shores with such periodic
certainty before the war.

Among large employing interests as well as in both
white and colored labor circles the expectation Is that the
northern labor supply will be constantly replenished from
the south. The reasons for this are found In conditions
described by the immigration and Inspection service of the
department of labor in a report not as yet made public.
From Dr. George Edwin Haynes, a colored man who
took a master's degree at Yale and Ph. D. at Columbia,
and who is a director of negro economics in the depart-
ment of labor, comes an advance report on these condi-
tions, as follows:

**Among alien residents in our country large numbers
intend to return to their native land. The principal cause
is a desire to learn what has befallen their families.

DEMAND FOR NEGRO LABOR 19

Many aliens told Investigators they had not heard from
their families in four years; that they had sent money
home, but had no means of knowing whether It was re-
ceived or not. Another cause Is a desire to ascertain and
settle estates of relatives killed during the war.

\/ ''Unemployment Is still severe In some sections and
there Is also a desire on the part of many foreigners to
return to the land just freed from German or Austrian
domination in the belief that opportunities will be better
in the new democracies than In the United States.

''In many cities investigation shows that fully 50 per
cent of the aliens Intend to go back to Europe. A large
number of these expect eventually to return to the United
States, but many say they will not come back. The cler-
gyman of one foreign church with 1,600 parishioners
expects not more than 100 will remain In this country.
In an Indiana city with a large Roumanian population,
from 40 to 50 per cent want to return to their homeland,
Transylvania. Few Poles In the same city expect to re-
turn, but 150 of the 600 Serbians wish to go, and it was
said that if unemployment became more serious, this
number would be Increased.

/ "An Investigation by a steel plant showed that 66 per
cent of its alien help were married and 64 per cent of
them had dependents In the old country. In this plant 61
per cent of all the aliens declared their Intention to
return to Europe, and of this number 91 per cent said
they were going to stay, while only 9 per cent were plan-
ning to return to America after their European visit.

*'A prominent Hungarian of Chicago estimated that
30,000 unnaturalized Austro-Hungarlans live in this city
and that 50 per cent would go back to Europe. Out of
a Polish population of 15,000, there were 6,000 expected

20 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

to return. Among Lithuanians there is a strong feel-
ing that if Lithuania becomes independent there will be
a large movement back to that country. These figures
gathered by the investigation and inspection service of
the department of labor show conclusively that large
numbers of aliens will leave never to return."

With America helping to rebuild Europe and feed its
people, business expansion is a certainty, Dr. Haynes pre-
dicts, at the same time asking, "Where is the labor coming
from to take the place of the labor that is gone never to
return?" Replying, he says: 'Tt isn't coming from
China. Somebody has suggested that we bring over
1,000,000 Chinese coolies. Unless we change the laws
we passed in the last twenty years, we can't do that. It
is not coming from Japan because the Pacific coast states
are going to raise such a howl that we cannot change the
laws. Furthermore it looks as though we are going to
have restriction on immigration from the European coun-
tries. So we may get a few Hawaiians, Filipinos, West
Indians, but they are colored people. The only great
source from which we can develop a new power of labor
that is as yet undeveloped, is from the great mass of
12,000,000 negro workers.

"All we are waiting for is the open gate so we may
enter into the industrial and agricultural opportunities on
the same terms as other workers. That day has arrived.
When orders come from France and Belgium and central
Europe and South America and Africa to the American
factories, it doesn't matter an iota what color the skin of
the man whose hand or brain produces that product. The
manufacturer is getting more and more to realize that
when the pressure comes, as it came during the war, if he
can get the labor he doesn't see any color mark on the

DEMAND FOR NEGRO LABOR 21

bank check or the draft that he gets in payment for his
goods. Most of this thing we call a race question Is
down at rock bottom a labor question.
^ *'When the colored man can come Into the labor market
and bargain for the sale of his services on the same terms
as other workers, a great deal of what Is termed to-day
the 'race question' Is going to be settled.'*

VI

NEW INDUSTRIAL OPPORTUNITIES

Consideration of the question of work for colored
people shows that it presents three important features;
(i) the opening of doors to new occupations so that
skilled men will not have to stay in the common labor
group all their lives; (2) getting men and women trained
to perform skilled or unskilled labor and coaching them
when on a job so that they will hold on; (3) creating a
sentiment among employers so that no colored man or
woman will be dismissed merely because of race.

These three aspects of the colored man's labor prob-
lem are worthy of careful study. They go to the root of
the most perplexing immediate phase of what is called
the race problem. It is economic equality that gets the
emphasis in the speeches and the writings of the colored
people themselves. They hate Jim Crow cars and lynch-
ing and all acts of race discrimination, in part, because
back of these is the big fact that, even in the north, in
many skilled occupations, as well as in many unskilled,
it is useless for any colored man or woman to ask a job.
And so, from year to year, we find the organizations of
colored people checking up, listing the new occupations
they have entered, pointing to new doors opening to men
on the basis of ability where color does not count one way
or the other.

The new doors of opportunity opening in Chicago in
the last two years, are told here :

22

NEW INDUSTRIAL OPPORTUNITIES 23

Molders. Every foundry in Chicago, according to
the Urban league employment office, which chiefly handles
the labor situation for colored people, is ready to hire
colored molders, who have no difficulty in getting jobs.

Tanneries have opened their doors to both skilled and
semi-skilled colored workers.
y Colored shipping clerks have entered freight ware-
houses. Such a statement might seem to have little signi-
ficance. As in all these instances, however, it is the
record of a new precedent. A door once inscribed, "No
hope," now says, "There is hope."

V^ Automobile repair shops now employ colored mechan-
ics. The two largest taxi companies make no discrimi-
nation on account of color.

One large mattress factory has opened the doors to col-
ored workers.

At the Central Soldiers' and Sailors' bureau at 120
West Adams street, are available for employment col-
ored men who served with the 8th infantry regiment in
the Argonne and the St. Mihiel sectors in front line
action. There are fifty chauffeurs, twenty first and second
cooks, thirty miscellaneous kitchen helpers, five valets and
ten butlers of experience, five shipping clerks, five actors,
five sales clerks, two stationary engineers, two firemen,
two night watchmen and five elevator men.

According to Sergt. H. J. Cannasius, in charge of the
division dealing with colored labor, a considerable propor-
tion of the men are justified in refusing to take jobs at
heavy labor. "These men were gassed or otherwise
wounded in service in the Argonne or in the St. Mihiel
actions," he said. "We sent one who had been gassed to
take a job as porter in a shoe store in State street. He
was In a basement trying to handle a big box of goods.

24 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

This was the first approach to heavy work he had tackled
since he was mustered out. He keeled over, and was
taken to a hospital, and it was four days before the doc-
tors would let him go.

"Men who were gassed in France we find are sensitive
to dust or fumes. We tried a number in the cement
works at Buflington, Ind., but they all came back after a
few days. At coal shoveling and at work in coke and
coal at gas houses or around vats and retorts where there
are fumes these men can't stand up to the work. They
come back almost with tears, saying they tried to hold
out, but couldn't.

"The Northwestern railroad dining car service has
employed a number of ex-soldiers as waiters. Some res-
taurants and hotels have taken porters and pantrymen at
$11 a week and board. We would have no trouble fill-
ing calls for more workers in this field. A call came to-
day for a colored bookkeeper to go to a normal school at
EHzabeth, N. C.

"Some of the returned men of the 8th infantry went
to see about getting places as sleeping car porters. They
found they would have to stand an initial fee of $35 for
uniforms, and as they had no money they gave it up.

"Three of our applicants can fill positions as interpre-
ters or secretaries who are required to know the chief
South American and European languages. It is notice-
able that some whose homes are in the south say they are
going to stay in Chicago, and under no consideration will
they go back to Mississippi, Georgia and other states that
draw the color line hard and fast. We have five or six
applicants a day, new ones, coming in and saying they
have chosen the north to live in. They pound on my

NEW INDUSTRIAL OPPORTUNITIES 25

table and say, "I'll be stiff as this table before I go back
south."

Sergt. Cannasius told the story of Edward Burke, of
3632 VIncennes avenue. Burke volunteered for naval
service In California before the draft and became chief
commissary steward on the ship Mauben. He was dis-
charged at Norfolk and took the best position he could
get, that of first cook on a dining car. English, French,
German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese — practically all lan-
guages spoken In South America or in central or western
Europe — are fluently spoken by Burke. His aspirations
are toward a position as interpreter or secretary, but thus
far destiny bids him fry eggs and stew beef with his many
languages.

The Chicago Whip, a new weekly newspaper, voices
appreciation of two utility corporations that have opened
the doors of employment to colored men.

"The Peoples Gas company breaks precedent by em-
ploying four meter Inspectors at salaries of $100 per
month and four special meter readers who are boys, 16
years old, at salaries of $55 per month," says the paper.
"The experiment of the gas company proved so success-
ful that the Commonwealth Edison company Immediately
followed suit by placing six colored men in the meter in-
stallation department."

VII

AFTER EACH LYNCHING

Chicago is a receiving station that connects directly
with every town or city where the people conduct a lynch-

/ "Every time a lynching takes place in a community

/ down south you can depend on it that colored people from

I that community will arrive in Chicago inside of two

I weeks," says Secretary Arnold Hill of the Chicago Urban

^4ea:g"ue, 3032 South Wabash avenue. *'We have seen it

happen so often that now whenever we read newspaper

dispatches of a public hanging or burning in Texas or a

Mississippi town, we get ready to extend greetings to

people from the immediate vicinity of the scene of the

lynching. If it is Arkansas or Georgia, where a series

of lynchings is going on this week, then you may reckon

with certainty that there will be large representations

from those states among the colored folks getting off the

trains at the Illinois Central station two or three weeks

from to-day.'*

f. Better jobs, the right to vote and have the vote counted
at elections, no Jim Crow cars, less race discrimination
and a more tolerant attitude on the part of the whites,
equal rights with white people in education — these are
among the attractions that keep up the steady movement
of colored people from southern districts to the north.

"Opportunity, not alms," is the slogan of the educated,
while the same thought comes over and over again from

26

AFTER EACH LYNCHING 27

the Illiterate In their letters, saying, *'A11 we want Is a
chanst," or, as one spells It, "Let me have a chanch,
please/'

^ Hundreds of letters written to The Chicago Defender,
the newspaper, and to the Urban league reflect the causes
of the migration. Charles Johnston, an Investigator for
the Carnegie foundation, a lieutenant from overseas with
the 803d Infantry, believes the economic motive Is fore-
most. He says:

"There are several ways of arriving at a conclusion
regarding the economic forces behind the movement of
the colored race northward. The factors might be deter-
mined by the amount of unemployment or the extent of
poverty. These facts are Important, but may or may not
account for Individual action.

"Except In a few localities of the south there was no
actual misery or starvation. Nor Is It evident that those
who left would have perished from want had they re-
mained. Large numbers of negroes have frequently
moved around from state to state and even within the
states of the south In search of more remunerative em-
ployment. The migrations to Arkansas and Oklahoma
were expressions of the economic force.

"A striking feature of the northern migration was its
individualism. Motives prompting the thousands of
negroes w^ere not always the same, not even In the case
of close neighbors. The economic motive was foremost,
a desire simply to Improve their living standards when
opportunity beckoned. A movement to the west or even
about the south could have proceeded from the same
cause.

"Some of the letters reveal a praiseworthy solicitude
for their families on the part of the writers. Other let-

28 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

ters are an index to poverty and helplessness of home
communities.

"In this type of migration the old order is strangely
reversed. Instead of leaving an overdeveloped and over-
crowded country for undeveloped new territory, they
have left the south, backward as it is in development
of its resources, for the highly industrialized north. Out
of letters from the south we listed seventy-nine different
occupations among i,ooo persons asking for information
and aid. Property holders, impecunious adventurers,
tradesmen, entire labor unions, business and professional
men, families, boys and girls, all registered their pro-
tests, mildly but determinately, against their homes and
sought to move.'*

From Pensacola, Fla., in May, 19 17, came a letter say-
ing, ''Would you please let me know what is the price of
boarding and rooming in Chicago and where is the best
place to get a job before the draft will work? I would
rather join the army 1,000 times up there than to join it
once down here."

"What I want to say is I am coming north," wrote
another, "and thought I would write you and list a few
of the things I can do and see if you can find a place for
my anywhere north of the Mason and Dixon line, and I
will present myself in person at your office as soon as I
hear from you. I am now employed in the R. R. shops at
Memphis. I am an engine watchman, hostler, rod cup
man, pipe fitter, oil house man, shipping clerk, telephone
lineman, freight caller, an expert soaking vat man who
can make dope for packing hot boxes on engines. I am
capable of giving satisfaction in either of the above-
named positions."

"I wish very much to come north," wrote a New Or-

AFTER EACH LYNCHING 29

leans man. ^'Anywhere In Illinois will do If I am away
from the lynchmen's noose and the torchmen's fire. We
are firemen, machinist helpers, practical painters and gen-
eral laborers. And most of all, ministers of the gospel
who are not afraid of labor, for It put us where we are."

"I want to ask you for information as to what steps I
should take to secure a good position as a first class auto-
mobeal blacksmith or any kind pertaining to such," Is an
inquiry from a large Georgia city. "I have been operat-
ing a first class white shop here for quite a number of
years, and If I must say, the only colored man in the city
that does. Any charges, why notify me, but do not pub-
lish my name."

"Please don't publish this In any paper," and "I
would not like for my name to be published In the
paper," are requests that accompanied two letters from
communities where lynchings had occurred.

A girl wrote from Natchez :

"I am writing you to oblige me to put my application
In the papers for me, please. I am a body servant or a
nice house maid. My hair Is black and my eyes are black
and I have smooth skin, clear and brown. Good teeth
and strong and good health. My weight is 136 lbs."

Here is a sample of the kind of letter that Is handed
around and talked about down south. It was written by
a colored workman in East Chicago, June, 19 17, to his
former pastor at Union Springs, Ala. :

"It Is true the colored men are making good. Pay Is
never less than $3 per day for ten hours — this not
promise. I do not see how they pay such wages the way
they work laborers. They do not hurry or drive you.
Remember this ($3) Is the very lowest wage. Piece work
men can make from $6 to $8 a day. They receive their

30 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

pay every two weeks. I am impressed. My family also.
They are doing nicely. I have no right to complain
whatever."

*'I often think so much of the conversation we used to
have concerning this part of the world. I wish many
times you could see our people up here, as they are en-
tirely In a different light. I witnessed Decoration day on
May 30, the line of march was four miles, eight brass
bands. All business houses were closed. I tell you the
people here are patriotic. The chief of police dropped
dead Friday. Buried him to-day, the procession about
three miles long. People are coming here every day and
find employment. Nothing here but money, and It Is not
hard to get. Oh, I have children In school every day
with the white children."

Enterprise must be the first name of another who
wrote back to Georgia :

"You can hardly get a place to live in here. I am wide
'awake on my financial plans. I have rented me a place
for boarders. I have fifteen sleepers, I began one week
ago. I am going into some kind of business here soon.

"The colored people are making good. They are the
best workers. I have made a great many white friends.
The church is crowded with Baptists from Alabama and
Georgia. Ten and twelve join every Sunday. He Is
planning to build a fine brick church. He takes up 50
and 60 dollars each Sunday."

It must be noted that all the foregoing letters were
written with no intent of publication and with no view at
all of explaining race migration or factors in housing,
employment and education.

VIII
TRADES FOR COLORED WOMEN

A colored woman entered the office of a north side
establishment where artificial flowers are manufactured.

*'I have a daughter 17 years old," she said to the
proprietor.

"All places filled now," he answered.

"I don't ask a job for her," came the mother's reply.
*'I want her to learn how to do the work like the white
girls do. She'll work for nothing. We don't ask wages,
just so she can learn."

So It was arranged for the girl to go to work. Soon
she was skilled and drawing wages with the highest In the
shop. Other colored girls came In. And now the entire
group of fifteen girls that worked in this north side shop
have been transferred to a new factory on the south side,
near their homes. At the same time a number of colored
girls have gone Into home work In making artificial
flowers.

Such are the casual, hit-or-miss Incidents by which the
way was opened for colored working people to enter one
Industry on the same terms as the white wage earners.

Doll hats, lamp shades, millinery — these are three
branches of manufacture where colored labor has entered
factories and has also begun home work. Colored work-
ers, with their bundles of finished goods on which the en-
tire family has worked, going to the contractor to turn in
the day's output are now a familiar sight in some neigh-

31

32 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

borhoods. In one residence a colored woman employs
seven girls, who come to the house every day and make
lamp shades, which are later delivered to a contractor.
The first week in July thirty girls were placed in one mil-
linery shop.

A notable recent development, partly incidental to con-
ditions of war industry, is the entrance of colored women
into garment factories, particularly where women's and
children's garments are made. In Chicago in the last year
they have been assigned to the operation of power ma-
chines making children's clothes, women's apparel, over-
alls and rompers.

Out of 170 firms in Chicago that employed colored
women for the first time during the war, 42, or 24 per
cent, were hotels or restaurants, which hired them as kit-
chen help or bus girls. Twenty-one, or 12 per cent, were
hotels or apartment houses which hired them as chamber-
maids. Nineteen laundries, 12 garment-factories, seven
stores, and eight firms, hiring laborers and janltresses,
make up the rest of the 170. The packing industry, of
course, leads all others In employment of both colored
men and women as workers. Occupations that engaged
still others during the war were picture framers, capsule
makers, candy wrappers, tobacco strippers, noodle mak-
ers, nut shellers, furniture sandpaperers, corset repairers,
paper box makers. Ice cream cone strippers, poultry dress-
ers and bucket makers.

In a building near the public library Is a colored wo-
man who conducts a hair-dressing parlor. She employs
three white girls. All the patrons are white. The pro-
prietress herself could easily pass for a Brazilian banana
planter's widow, of Spanish Caucasian blood. But as
she frankly admits that she is one-eighth African and

TRADES FOR COLORED WOMEN 33

seven-eighths Caucasian, she has been refused admission
to other buildings when she wished for various reasons to
change the location of her establishment.

Here and there, slowly and by degrees, the line of
color discrimination breaks. A large chain of dairy
lunchrooms in Chicago employs colored bus girls, cooks
and dishwashers and depends almost entirely on colored
help to do the rougher work.

More notable yet Is the fact that a downtown business
college Informs employment bureaus that it Is able to
place any and all colored graduates of the college in posi-
tions as stenographers and typists. In a few loop stores
colored salesgirls are employed. In one shoe store be-
ginning this policy, a white girl filed complaint. The
manager inv^estlgated and found there was no objection
except from this one white girl, who was thereupon dis-
missed.

A mattress factory opened wage earning opportunities
to colored women In the last year. Two taxicab com-
panies now hire women as cleaners. The foregoing list
of occupations just about completes the recital of progress
In this regard In Chicago In the last year.

Colored women were occupied during the war In var-
ious cities In making soldiers' uniforms, horses' gas
masks, belts, puttees, leggings, razor blade cases, gloves,
veils, embroideries, raincoats, books, cigars, cigarettes,
dyed furs, millinery, candy, artificial feathers, buttons,
toys, marabou and women's garments.

The comment of a trained Industrial observer on the
colored woman as a machine operator Is as follows:

"Few as yet are skilled as machine or hand operators.
Because of their newness to Industrial work, the majority
have been put on processes requiring no training and

34 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

small manual ability. They are employed at repetitive
hand operations, and occasionally run a foot press or a
power sewing machine. In one millinery shop, however,
the superintendent said that every colored worker in his
shop preferred machine operation to hand work.

"Replacement for colored women, however, does not
mean advancement in the same sense as for white women.
Because the white woman has been in industry for a long
time, and is more familiar with industrial practices, she
is less willing to accept bad working conditions. The
^olored woman, oTi the other hand, is handicapped by;
industrial ignorance and drifts into conditions of work
rejected by white workers. Colored women are found
on processes white women refuse to perform. They re-
place boys and men at cleaning window shades, dyeing
furs, and in one factory they were found bending con-
stantly and lifting clumsy i6o pound bales of material.

^'Inquiries as to the general attitude of white workers
toward the introduction of colored women brought con-
flicting reports. About half the employers claimed that
their white workers had no objection to the colored wo-
men; that they were either cordial or entirely indifferent
toward them. Of the other half, some said their white
workers objected when the colored workers were first
hired, but felt no prejudice now. Other white workers
preferred to have the two groups segregated. Still others
were willing to let the colored workers do unskilled work,
but refused to allow them on the skilled processes.

"At the time of the greatest labor shortage in the his-
tory of this country, colored women were the last to be
employed. They did the most menial and by far the most
underpaid work. They were the marginal workers all
through the war, and yet during those perilous times, the

TRADES FOR COLORED WOMEN 35

colored woman made just as genuine a contribution to the
cause of democracy as her white sister in the munitions
factory or her brother in the trench. She released the
white women for more skilled work and she replaced
colored men who went into service."

The report of a study jointly directed by representa-
tives of the Consumers' league, Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C.
A., Russell Sage foundation and other organizations rec-
ommends that greater emphasis be placed on the training
of the colored girl by more general education and more
trade training through apprenticeship and trade schools,
and also that every effort be made to stimulate trade
organizations among colored women by education of col-
ored women working toward organization, education of
colored workers for industrial leadership and keener
understanding of colored women in industry among or-
ganized and unorganized white workers. And, lastly, an
appreciation and acceptance of the colored woman In
industry by the American employer and the public at
large is urged.

A creed of cleanliness was issued in thousands of
copies by the Chicago Urban league during the big Influx
of colored people from the south. It recognized that the
woman, always the woman is finally responsible for the
looks and upkeep of a household, and made Its appeal In
the following language:

''For me ! I am an American citizen. I am proud of
our boys 'over there,' who have contributed soldier ser-
vice. I desire to render citizen service. I realize that
our soldiers have learned new habits of self-respect and
cleanliness. I desire to help bring about a new order of
living in this community. I will attend to the neatness of
my personal appearance on the street or when sitting In

36 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

the front doorway. I will refrain from wearing dust-
caps, bungalow aprons, house clothing and bedroom
shoes when out of doors. I will arrange my toilet within
doors and not on the front porch. I will Insist upon the
use of rear entrances for coal dealers and hucksters. I
will refrain from loud talking and objectionable deport-
ment on street cars and In public places. I will do my
best to prevent defacement of property, either by children
or adults."

Two photographs went with this creed. One showed
an unclean, messy front porch, the other a clean, well
kept front porch. Such is the propaganda of order and
decency carried on earnestly and ceaselessly/ by clubs,
churches and leagues of colored people, struggling to
bring along the backward ones of a people whose heri-
tage is 200 years of slavery and fifty years of Industrial
boycott.

As an aside from the factual and the humdrum of the
foregoing, here is a letter, vivid with roads and bypaths
of spiritual life, written by a colored woman to her sister
in Mississippi. It is a frank confession of one sister soul
to another of what life has brought, and as a document
Is worth more than stacks of statistics.

"My Dear Sister: — I was agreeably surprised to hear
from you and to hear from home. I am well and thank-
ful to say I am doing well. The weather and everything
else was a surprise to me when I came. I got here in
time to attend one of tht greatest revivals in the history
of my life. Over 500 people joined the church. We had
a Holy Ghost shower. You know I like to have run
wild. It was snowing some nights and if you didn't hurry
you could not get standing room.

*Tlease remember me kindly to any who ask of me.

TRADES FOR COLORED WOMEN 37

The people are rushing here by the thousands, and I
know if you come and rent a big house you can get all the
roomers you want. You write me exactly when you are
coming. I am not keeping house. I am living with my
brother and his wife. My son is in California, but will
be home soon. He spends his winter in California. I
can get a nice place for you to stop until you can look
around and see what you want.

'T am quite busy. I work for a packing company In
the sausage department. My daughter and I work in
the same department. We get $1.50 a day and we pack
so many sausages we don't have much time to play, but
It Is a matter of a dollar with me and I feel that God
made the path and I am. walking therein.

"Tell your husband work is plentiful here and he won't
have to loaf If he wants to work. I know unless old man

A changed it was awful with his soul. Well, I guess

I have said about enough. I will be delighted to look into
your face once more in life. Pray for me, for I am
heaven bound. I have made too many rounds to slip
now. I know you will pray for me, for prayer Is the life
of any sensible man or woman. Good-by."

IX

NEGROES AND RISING RENTS

One of the best known club women in Chicago sold an
apartment house on Wabash avenue last month. It cost
her $26,000. She sold it for $14,000. Her agent advised
her to make the sale because, as he said, the colored
people were coming into the neighborhood and the prop-
erty surely was going to take a slump.

That is Chapter I of the little story. Chapter II
opens with the rent of each apartment taking a jump
from $2^ to $50 in this identical apartment house that
had apparently taken such a drop in value in the open
market. The fact is that it wasn't an open market. It
was a panicky market. Sold openly, so that all prospec-
tive buyers might have had opportunity to bid, the place
would have brought a higher price than was originally
paid for it.

In two other Instances in this same neighborhood prop-
erties at one time worth $15,000 dropped to $8,000 and
$6,000, respectively, in a market so managed that there
was no competitive bidding. The sellers were filled with
panic. Then the rents took a high jump after the sales
were made.

There seem to be certain preposterous axioms of real
estate exchange governing this district and no others in
Chicago. These axioms might be stated thus : ( i ) Sell
at a loss and the rent goes higher, and (2) the larger

38

NEGROES AND RISING RENTS 39

the number of colored persons ready to pay higher
rentals, the lower the realty values slump.

To quote a paragraph from the housing survey of the
school of civics and philanthropy:

*Tt is a matter of common knowledge that house after
house, flat after flat, whether under white or black agents,
comes to the negro at an increased rental. The only
available argument, it would seem, which will ever dispel
the public impressions is for instances to become just as
numerous of charge downward as they now are of charge
upward. A negro woman, recent purchaser of a modern
six flat building on the south side, informed the investi-
gator that she had been importuned by numerous white
agents and by two negro dealers, one of whom she named,
to allow them to rent her flat for her at a substantial
increase above the rent she is now receiving, acting as
her own agent."

The report says further: "Counter-charges are made
against the negro tenant by dealers of both races." It con-
siders these charges in extensive detail, and then de-
clares :

*'It is established that, despite the low rents, which are
' immaterial in the light of circumstances, the general hous-
ing condition of negroes in the area lying between State
street and the railroad tracks, stretching for several
blocks north and south of 27th street, is reprehensible, a
menace to health and constitutes kindling wood sufiicient
to keep Chicago in constant danger of disastrous con-
flagration.

"Whatever may be the contributing causes, demand
and supply, overbidding for coveted places on the part
of tenants, inconspicuousness of the negro as an economic
factor, guaranteed rentals or what not, the negro in

40 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

Chicago, paid a lower wage than the white workman and
more limited In opportunity, does pay a relatively higher
rent. The negro real estate man is much fairer, generally
speaking, than is supposed, and could means be found
whereby he and the tenant could get together and come
to an understanding on many things, each about the other,
regarding which they are now deluded, the first step
would have been taken to the improvement of the lot of
the negro renter."

Twenty years ago fewer than fifty families of the col-
ored race were home owners In Chicago. To-day they
number thousands, their purchases ranging from $200 to
$20,000, from tar paper shacks In the steel district to
brownstone and graystone establishments with wealthy or
well to do white neighbors. In most cases, where a col-
ored man has Investments of more than ordinary size, It
Is In large part In real estate. Realty Investment and
management seem to be an Important field of operation
among those colored people who acquire substance.

In the matter of home buying there Is something radi-
cally abnormal about the situation of the colored people
in Chicago. The last census computed 22.5 per cent of
the homes occupied by colored citizens In the United
States as owned by the occupants. In Illinois 23 per cent
of the colored householders owned their premises. But
In Chicago the survey of the School of Civics and Phil-
anthropy in 19 1 7 reported that In the south division only
4 per cent of the apartments and houses occupied by col-
ored persons were owned by the occupants and on the
west side only 8 per cent. In South Chicago and in the
stockyards district, where the highest percentage of own-
ership was found, 18 per cent of the colored families
owned their homes. So It Is evident that the percentage

NEGROES AND RISING RENTS 41

of home owners in the district around 35th and State
streets is desperately low as compared with other Chicago
districts and as compared with the country at large.

It is easy to understand how the doubling of population
during the late war made a live real estate situation. Not
only was it difficult for the newcomers to buy homes, if
they so desired, but it was hard at times for them even to
get a place to sleep. The Urban league canvassed real
estate dealers one day and found 664 colored applicants
for houses on that day and only fifty suppHed. The de-
mands for quarters, the higher rentals paid by colored
people and other factors were responsible for thirty-six
new localities being opened up within three months, these
localities having formerly been exclusively white. This
increase in rents was from 5 to 30 per cent, and in a few
cases 50 per cent.

"To-day we are beginning to realize that to become a
good citizen, it is necessary to own a home, and that those
who are renting cannot be considered other than float-
ers," is the comment of Jesse Binga, banker, the oldest
established colored real estate dealer in Chicago.

When Binga bought one corner on South State street
it was valued at $300 a front foot. It is now worth $500
a front foot. Six saloons did a fast business in that neigh-
borhood when he entered there, and it was said of it,
*'You could get anything you wanted, from a footrace to
a murder." Now it is a quiet, ordinary residence corner,
and in behavior and cleanliness it ranks as one of the best
in Chicago.

Though there are 249 building and loan associations
in Chicago, there was none for the colored race until the
Pyramid Building and Loan association, financed and

42 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

officered by colored men, came Into existence this year.
There have been 690 shares sold to 105 persons.

Housing surveys of colored residence districts, varying
in scope and purposes, are being conducted by the Cook
county real estate board and the city public welfare de-
partment. One of the best publications on this subject is
a pamphlet by Lieut. Charles S. Duke, a colored man, a
Harvard graduate, and an engineer In the bridge division
of the public works department at the city hall. It was
published last April and It summarizes proposals for Im-
mediate action under two heads.

First are "things that Chicago owes her colored citi-
zens," which are stated as follows:

1. The privilege of borrowing money easily upon
real estate occupied by colored citizens living on the south
side, and in the same amounts as can be borrowed upon
property located in other parts of the city.

2. Better attention in the matter of repairs and up-
keep of premises occupied by colored tenants.

3. Making an end of the neglect of neighborhoods
occupied principally by colored people.

4. Abandonment of all attempts at racial segrega-
tion.

5. Prohibition, as far as possible, of the commer-
cializing of race prejudice in real estate matters.

6. Recovery from hysteria Incident to the advent of
the first colored neighbors.

7. Fewer indignation meetings and more constructive
planning.

8. Better school houses and more modern equipment
in schools in districts where colored people live in large
numbers.

NEGROES AND RISING RENTS -43

9. More playgrounds and recreational centers on the
south side.

10. A beautiful branch library in the center of the
colored district.

As a corollary are presented these "things that colored
citizens owe Chicago":

1. Better care of premises occupied by them, either
as tenants or as landlords.

2. Formation of improvement clubs for the beauti-
fication of the neighborhoods in which they may live.

3. Practice of thrift and economy in the spending of
income.

4. Keeping the expenditures within the income.

5. The buying of beautiful, sanitary homes.

6. Spending less money for amusements and e^ipen-
sive clothing.

7. Checkmating of the real estate broker who makes
it his business to capitalize race prejudice in his dealings.

8. Reduction of the lodger evil.

9. Ending of the practice of taking on real estate
obligations beyond the purchaser's means.

10. A continual demand for all the civic benefits that
a beautiful and progressive city like Chicago can confer
upon its citizens.

UNIONS AND THE COLOR LINE

At the Saddle and Sirloin club there sat In conference
one day a few months ago representatives from two
groups. On one side of the table were men speaking for
the most active organizations of colored people In Chi-
cago In matters of employment and general welfare.
On the other side of the table were men speaking for the
packers who employ at the stockyards upwards of 15,000
colored men and women, Interests that are to-day and
are expected to be In the future the largest employers of
colored labor.

Four points to constitute a guiding policy In employ-
ment were offered by the colored representatives, with
a statement that the principles embodied the general
sense of the leaders of social, Industrial, welfare and
religious groups of the colored race In Chicago. After
discussion the representatives of the packers agreed to
accept the four points, and they are regarded by the col-
ored people as In force and effective until further notice.

The four points as phrased In the conference at the
Saddle and Sirloin club, are;

1. That whenever we are attempting to Introduce'
negro workers Into trades In which white workers are
unionized, we must urge the negroes to join the unions.

2. That when we are Introducing negro labor Into
industries In which the white workers are not unionized,

44

UNIONS AND THE COLOR LINE 45

we advise negroes, In case the effort Is made to unionize
the Industry, to join with their white comrades.

3. That we strongly urge the organizers of all the
unions In Industries which may be opened to colored
labor, not only to permit, but actively to assist In Incorpor-
ating negroes Into the unions.

4. In cases where negroes are prevented from joining
the unions, the right Is reserved of complete liberty of
action as to the advice that will be given to negro work-
ing men.

With these points In force, the men concerned felt that
they had taken all steps humanly possible to avert any
such disaster as came to East St. Louis, where labor con-
ditions were a factor.

Estimates as to the number of colored workers who
have joined the trade unions of the Stockyards Labor
council vary from 6,000 to 10,000. The organizers say
they are too busy to make even an approximate count.
They say further that the organizations are mixed col-
ored and white, and a count of membership Is not as easy
as It would be If all colored members were segregated In
one local. Such a segregation Is not being thought of.

"Men who work together In mixed gangs of white and
colored workers believe their trade union ought to be
organized just like the work gang," said A. K. Foote, a
colored man whose craft Is that of hog killer and who is
secretary of local 651 of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters
and Butcher Workmen of North America.

*'If you ask me what I think about race prejudice, and
whether it's getting better," he said, "I'll tell you the one
place In this town where I feel safest Is over at the yards,
with my union button on. The union is for protection,
that's our cry. We put that on our organization wagons

46 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

and trucks traveling the stockyards district, in signs tell-
ing the white and colored men that their interests are
identical.

"We had a union ball a while ago in the Coliseum
annex, and 2,000 people were there. The whites danced
with their partners and the colored folks with theirs.
The hog butchers' local gave a picnic recently and they
came around to our people with tickets to sell, and the
attendance at the picnic was cosmopolitan. Whenever
you hear any of that race riot stuff, you can be sure it is
not going to start around here. Here they are learning
that it pays for white and colored men to call each other
brother."

Local 651 has a commodious, well-kept office at 43d
and State streets. It is known as the "miscellaneous" local,
taking in as members the common laborers and all work-
ers not qualifying for membership in a skilled craft
union. One advantage for colored workers, according
to organizers, is that the seniority rights of such workers
are now accorded. If the head of a work gang quits for
any reason and a colored man is the oldest in point of
service in the gang or department, he is automatically
advanced. When an organization meeting was held re-
cently on a Sunday afternoon in a public school yard at
33d street and Wentworth avenue, the police directed
that the parade of the colored workmen from their hall
at 43d and State streets must not march down State street
through the district most heavily populated with negroes.
The union officials are still mystified by the police explan-
ation that it was safer and better for the colored proces-
sion to take a line of march where there were the smallest
number of negro residents on the streets.

Margaret Bondfield, fraternal delegate from the

UNIONS AND THE COLOR LINE 47

British trades union congress, spoke to the audience,
which numbered about 3,000. Probably 2,000 stood in
the hot sun three hours while the American Giants (col-
ored) played in the next lot, and the White Sox game
was on only two blocks away.

John Riley and C. Ford, organizers carrying authori-
zations from the American Federation of Labor, were
speakers. Ford has personality, rides rough-shod over
English grammar, but wins his crowd with homely points
such as these :

*'If I had any prejudice against a white man in this
crowd any more than I've got against a colored man, then\
I'd jump down here off this platform and break my
infernal neck right now."

"You boys know about rassling. You know if you
throw a rassler down you know you got to stay down with
him if you're going to keep him down : If you don't stay
down with him, he'll get up and you got to throw him
again."

*'You notice there ain't no Jim Crow cars here to-day.
That's what organization does. The truth is there ain't
no negro problem any more than there's a Irish problem
or a Russian or a Polish or a Jewish or any other prob-
lem. There is only the human problem, that's all. All
we demand is the open door. You give us that, and we
won't ask nothin' more of you."

It was a curious equation of human races that stood
listening to this talk. Lithuanians, Poles, Slovaks, Ital-
ians and colored men mingled in all sections of the crowd,
and every speaker touching the topic of prejudice got the
same kind of a response from all parts of the crowd. So
they stood in the July afternoon sun, listening as best they
could to what they could hear from their orators, while

48 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

the noisy cheers and laughter of two ball games came on
the air in great gusts. They were 2,000 men for whom
the race problem is solved. Their theory is that when
economic equality of the races is admitted, then the social,
housing, real estate, transportation or educational phases
are not difficult.

* 'We all know there are unions in the American Feder-
ation of Labor that have their feet in the 20th century and
their heads in the i6th century," said Secretary Johnstone
of the Stockyards Labor council, as applause swept the
sunburned 2,000. He was referring to the unions that
draw the color line.

The Rev. L. K. Williams of Olivet Baptist church,
which has a membership of 8,500, and the Rev. John F.
Thomas of the Ebenezer Baptist church at 35th and
Dearborn streets, besides other clergymen, have voiced
approval of the campaign for organization of colored
labor in affiliation with the trade union movement. There
was dissent to organization spoken by a few ministers at
one time, but this is said now to have changed to
approval.

A unique memorial was circulated among all colored
clergymen in Chicago by five labor unions in which the
colored people have a large representation. In order
that each copy should bear proof of its authenticity, it
was embossed with the seal of each of the five unions and
signed by the officers. The memorial read:

**Whereas, God is the creator of all mankind and has
endowed us with certain inalienable rights that should be
respected one by the other, so that peace and harmony
will reign and hell on earth be subdued; and,

"Whereas, the unscrupulous white plutocrats, aided by
corrupt politicians, have usurped even the rights of the

UNIOxNS AND THE COLOR LINE 49

workers guaranteed by the constitution and supplanted
oppression and discord by propagating race hatred, dis-
crimination and class distinction, and

"Whereas, the credulous common people (white and
black) have been the maltreated tools of these financial
master mechanics, and their fallacious teachings have
kept us divided and made their throne more secure, and

"Whereas, the power of the united front and concerted
action of all tollers is the only medium through which in-
dustrial and political democracy can be obtained, wage
slavery and unjust legislation destroyed, and

"Whereas, the executive board of the American Fed-
eration of Labor on April 22, 19 18, in Washington, D.
C, was met by a committee of recognized race leaders,
and adopted plans thoroughly to organize the colored
workers in industry, putting them on the some economic
level with other races; therefore, be it

"Resolved, that we appeal to the conscientious race
leaders. Intellectuals and other God fearing men of influ-
ence, who believe in human rights, justice and fair play
and are desirous of conveying light and plenty where
darkness and want predominate, to assist the 60,000 col-
ored members of the American Federation of Labor in
fostering and encouraging members of our race to affiliate
with the bona fide labor movement, to the end that we
will have a larger representation in this Industrial army,
which will exemplify to the white progressives, as well as
autocrats, that we are 'straws in the new broom of recon-
struction, that will sweep clean American Institutions,
ridding them of discrimination and corruption.' "

With the official union seals were the signatures of
George A. Swan, president; Hugh Swift, vice president,
and R. E. Copeland, secretary of the Musicians' Protec-

50 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

tlve union; Garrett Rice, president, A. L. Johnson, vice
president, and A. Welcher, secretary of the Railway
Coach Cleaners' union; N. S. WImms, president, and P.
D. Campbell, vice president, of the Sleeping Car Porters
of America ; Annie M. Jones, president, Isabel Case, vice
president, and Mabel Kinglln, secretary of local 213 of
the Butcher Workmen's union; Henry Pappers, presi-
dent, J. W. Smith, vice president, and A. K. Foote, sec-
retary of local 651 of the Butcher Workmen's union.

There is odd humor in the fact that Dr. George C.
Hall, a colored surgeon and real estate proprietor to
the extent of $100,000, has been for years an honorary
member of the Meat Cutters' and Butcher Workmen's
union. Dr. Hall always has contended that organization
is one route away from race discrimination.

XI
ABOUT LYNCHINGS

"Eleven persons joined our church the other Sunday
and they were all from Vicksburg, Miss., where there had
been a lynching a few weeks before," said Dr. L. K. Wil-
liams, colored pastor of the largest protestant church in
North America, in an address to the Baptist Ministers'
council of Chicago.

Tuskeegee institute records of lynchlngs the first six
months of this year show the following numbers In the
states named: Alabama, 3; Arkansas, 4; Florida, 2;
Georgia, 3; Louisiana, 4; Mississippi, 7; Missouri, i;
North Carolina, 2; South Carolina, i; Texas, i. The
total, 28, is seven less than In the corresponding period of
19 1 8 and fourteen more than in the corresponding period
of 1917.

Not only Is Chicago a receiving station and port of
refuge for colored people who are anxious to be free from
the jurisdiction of lynch law, but there has been built here
a publicity or propaganda machine that directs Its appeals
or carries on an agitation that every week reaches hun-
dreds of thousands of people of the colored race in the
southern states. The State street blocks south of 31st
street are a "newspaper row," with the Defender, the
Broad Ax, the Plaindealer, the Searchlight, the Guide,
the Advocate, the Whip, as weekly publications, and
there are also Illustrated monthly magazines such as the
Half Century and the Favorite.

51

52 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

The Defender Is the dean of the weekly newspaper
group, and it is said to reach more than 100,000 sub-
scribers in southern states. A Carnegie foundation in-
vestigator records his belief that the Defender, more than
any other one agency, was the cause of the "northern
fever" and the big exodus from the south in the last three
years. It advocates race pride and race militancy and
exhausted the vocabulary of denunciation on lynching,
disfranchisement, and all forms of race discrimination.

At some postoffices in the south it was difficult to have
copies of the Defender delivered to subscribers. A col-
ored man caught with a copy In his possession was sus-
pected of "northern fever" and other so called disloy-
alties. Thousands of letters poured into the Defender
office asking about conditions in the north.

This situation had a curious political reflex. A rumor
arose. It traveled to Chicago and Washington. It said
that sinister forces were operating to prevent negroes in
the north and particularly In Chicago from returning to
their former homes In the south. Down south the rumor
traveled and was published to the effect that thousands of
colored men and women were walking the streets of
Chicago, hungry and without shoes, begging for trans-
portation to Dixie, the home of the cotton blossoms that
they were longing to see again.

Lieut. W. L. Owen of the military Intelligence service
at Washington was sent to Chicago to Investigate. He
went to Dr. George C. Hall, a leader In several colored
organizations, and asked, "What Is this undercurrent that
is keeping the negroes In the north?" Dr. Hall answered,
"There isn't any undercurrent. Everything Is in the open
in this case. The trouble started when the Declaration
of Independence was written. It says that every man has

ABOUT LYNCHINGS 53

a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. So
long as the colored people get more of those three things
in the north than in the south they are going to keep com-
ing, and they are going to stay."

Dr. Hall told the intelligence officer that the situation
reminded him of the reply of the colored band leader to
Liza Johnson, who asked what was the occasion of the
brass band's parading the streets one evening. The reply
was, "Lordy, Liza, don't you know we don't need no
occasion?"

The declaration of Dr. Williams to the Baptist Minis-
ters* association that eleven new members came from
Vicksburg has a direct connection with a lynching story
which is being widely circulated by the publicity or propa-
ganda batteries of South State street, reaching at least
1,000,000 of the illiterate colored people of the south.
The story, for ingenious cruelty and with relation to the
kind of barbarism that is worse for the practitioners than
the victims, equals anything recited in recent European
war atrocities or anything in the Spanish inquisition or
more ancient days.

In Vicksburg, in the third week in June, the story goes,
a colored man accused of an assault on a white woman
was placed in a hole that came to his shoulders. Earth
was tamped around his neck, only his head being left
above ground. A steel cage five feet square then was
put over the head of the victim and a bulldog was put in-
side the cage. Around the dog's head was tied a paper
bag filled with red pepper to inflame his nostrils and eyes.
The dog immediately lunged at the victim's head. Further
details are too gruesome to print.

Whatever may be the truth about this amazing story,
it is published in newspapers of the colored people and is

54 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

attested as a fact by Secretary A. Clement McNeal of
the National Association for Advancement of the Color-
ed People, whose local office is at 3333 South State street.
The last named organization, the most militant in
activities against lynching, will hold its annual convention
next year for the first time in a southern city. It will go
to Atlanta on invitation of the mayor of that city and on
request of Gov. Dorsey of Georgia. This is one of sev-
eral indfcations that the southern states are actively con-
sidering steps to be taken to retain their negro popula-
tion and to lessen the violence which threatens to become
a habit in a number of communities.

XII
NEGRO CRIME TALES

Outbreaks of race warfare reported from Washing-
ton, D. C, cause leaders of the colored people In Chicago
to place emphasis on two points. ( i ) That Washington
has had a large Inflow of southern white population dur-
ing recent years, while the regular army is known to have
a larger proportion of whites from the southern states
than from any other section; (2) that the reported
clashes may be something else than racial hostilities and,
perhaps, may be traced back to the same antagonisms
as those which caused the sectional war from i860 to
1865.

John Hawkins, formerly with the federal department
of justice and more recently In the second deputy superin-
tendent's office of the Chicago police department, gives
this view:

"The newspaper reports of what is happening in
Washington have most frequently indicated that the
causes of the outbreaks were attacks by colored soldiers
on white women. Though this Is a serious and sinister
charge to repeat day after day In dispatches that go to the
entire nation, the fact Is that there have been no support-
ing details, no particulars of knowledge or information
such as any court of law or any intelligent person requires
before arriving at an opinion or a conviction.

"In one instance a dispatch contained the following
three sentences : 'Even while the rioting was at its height

55

56 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

early to-day reports of another attack upon a white wo-
man came. Frightened away once, her assailant hid and
seized her as she left her house. She escaped only when
all but stripped of her clothing.'

"Here we have the gravest sort of a charge. No
names are given, no locations, no witnesses — a wild in-
flammatory tale sent out on the swift wings of rumor and
gabbled and tattled for the consumption of a nation of
people struggling to set an example to the rest of the
world on the value of self control during a great world
crisis.

*'In all cases where the old and familiar statement is
made that 'a negro attacked a white woman,' let there be
something more than this vague allegation. It has too
often served to screen ulterior purposes. Unless such a
statement is accompanied by names, dates and locations,
and has at least a semblance of such facts as are required
when a white man is similarly involved, it should be
assumed that the vague allegations are camouflage be-
hind which men are working to defeat the intent of the
emancipation proclamation, men who hold to the feudal
south's theory that the negro is biologically inferior to
the white man."

The Anti-Vilification society has been organized by
colored men in Chicago who believe that the United
States as a republic is headed in the right direction, but
that there is being carried on persistent propaganda that
can bring no good to the nation. Lieut. Charles S. Duke,
colored, a graduate of Harvard university, and Edward
H. Morris, an able colored lawyer who is reported to
have a fortune close to $1,000,000, are among the officers
of the organization.

**A few days ago there was a lynching In a Mississippi

NEGRO CRIME TALES 57

town," said Lieut. Duke. "One New Orleans newspaper
reported that the victim had confessed, while another
newspaper said It was reported that he had confessed to
a crime. On so vitally Important a matter as whether a
man to be burned by a mob had confessed guilt the me-
diums of public Information did not agree."

A committee representing a number of organizations of
colored people called on the Illinois state council of de-
fense one day while the late war was on. They carried
copies of a front page newspaper story wherein It was
stated that at a north shore society event the hostess took
particular pains not to shake hands with the members of
the colored "jazz" orchestra. The members of the state
council of defense recognized that the article was a gra-
tuitous Insult to the colored people, and the continuance
of such a news policy during the war might seriously
affect the colored fighters and workers.

Equality is a big word In the various public movements
among the colored people. The following program
adopted recently by the National Association for the
Advancement of the Colored People contains In brief a
statement of the kinds of equality they are seeking:

1. A vote for every negro man and woman on the
same terms as for white men and women. This Is accord-
ed in practically all northern states, but not in the states
south of Mason and Dixon's line.

2. An equal chance to acquire the kind of an educa-
tion that will enable the negro everywhere to use his vote
wisely.

3. A fair trial in the courts for all crimes of which
he is accused by judges in whose election he has partici-
pated, without discrimination because of race.

4. A right to sit upon the jury which passes upon him.

58 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

5. Defense against lynching and burning at the hands
of mobs.

6. Equal service on railroads and other public car-
riers, this to mean sleeping car service, dining car service,
Pullman service, at the same cost and on the same terms
as other passengers.

7. Equal right to the use of public parks, libraries
and other community services for which he is taxed.

8. An equal chance for a livlihood in public and
private employment.

9. The abolition of color-hyphenation and the sub-
stitution of "straight Americanism.'*

XIII
COLORED GAMBLERS

In South State street, in blocks near 35th street, there
are colored men who stand on the sidewalk and pick out
faces from the human stream flowing by. They saunter
carelessly out" and meet these faces and speak words
addressed to the ears adjusted behind the faces. These
words usually are: "Try your wrist to-day? Try your
wrist?"

The Immemorial game of craps calls for wrist play.
Of course. It Is entirely a matter of luck or fate, unless the
dice are loaded, but the sidewalk cappers In South State
street assume that It takes a skill of the human wrist to
throw the requisite sevens and elevens that are necessary
to what is technically known as a "killing." So they ask,
"Try your wrist?"

"Billy" Lewis for months has been running a place
between 3510 and 3512 South State street, called the
Pioneer club, where craps and poker are the attractions.
The entrance is between two store buildings. A capper
is usually in front day and night. From early In the after-
noon till far in the morning players dribble in and out of
this passageway, usually one customer at a time, occasion-
ally two or three customers together, but generally every-
thing looking quiet and orderly, though the attendance
of the Pioneer club in the rear goes as high as seventy-five
and 100 men when the "going" is good.

This is not the only craps and poker enterprise con-

59

6o THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

ducted by "Billy" Lewis. He has another at 14 East
35th street, where the second and third floors are used as
a temple of the gods of chance. Also he has another at
37 West 22d street.

"Louie Joe" presides over craps at a place In the 3000
block on South State street, second floor front. "Mexi-
can Frank" has his establishment at 3436 South State
street, second floor front. "Wiley" Coleman is in the
same block on South State street, second floor front.

It should be stated here that in most cases the neigh-
boring shops, stores and flat dwellers do not enjoy the
proximity of the poker and craps enthusiasts. In every
instance where inquiry was made the neighbors said they
wished the police would stop the games.

W. M. Bass has been operating craps and poker games
night and day in the rear of a real estate ofllice on East
31st street, near Cottage Grove avenue. From an alley
entrance at 3512 South State street, one may enter a
temple of chance conducted by one McFallin. Two men
known as "Williams" and "Kennedy" maintain a labor-
atory for the study oF the laws of chance on South State
street, near 35th street, entrances front and rear. T.
Jones has a similar laboratory on South State street, near
39th street, second floor, front and rear entrances.

"From 22d street to 39th street on South State street
there Is some kind of a game going here and there, usually
craps and poker, and often day and night," said an in-
formant who knows the district from constant residence
in it and wide acquaintance.

"I'm no reformer," he commented further, "I don't
want to have the duty of changing what is In men's na-
tures. But you can take it from me, they're going too far
out here now. There ain't many places where the game

COLORED GAMBLERS 6i

IS square. The worklngman who falls for a capper and
thinks he is going to try his wrist, he don't try his wrist at
all. He goes up against dice that are fixed and cards
that are marked and they take his money away from
him."

Now for the contrast. Take a look at the buddmgs
where live some of the victims of the gamblers, who are
naturally also the victims of the police who let the gam-
blers run the kind of games that are run.

A house to house canvass was made by a colored news-
paper man of two blocks of residences or tenements in
Dearborn street adjacent to the South State street craps
and poker games. The figures jotted down in the note-
book of this investigator have a special significance when
it is recalled that it is from these tenements that the
gambling houses get part of their customers.

Within two blocks were found a total of eighty-three
families where 96 per cent of the boys were truants from
the public schools, and 72 per cent of these boys were
retarded at least one year by reason of truancy. In
most cases the parents were away from home so much
that they were out of touch with the children. At sixty-
two homes the condition of furniture, walls and ceilings
was classified as "dilapidated." In five instances there
was water dripping into a living room from a toilet room
in bad order on a floor above.

In thirty-one cases the father had "deserted," which
means he is tired, dead, sick or gone wrong from un-
known causes. In nineteen cases the father of the family
was dead, and the mother was struggling with a variously
sized brood of young ones. In twenty-eight cases the
father was a heavy drinker. Three of the fathers were
in jail and eleven homes were motherless. Forty mothers

62 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

worked all day, twenty mothers were "heavy drinkers,"
to use the classification employed by this investigator.
Forty-two refused to answer questions.

The following sweeping summary was noted :

"Fifty-one per cent of the cases revealed home broken
by death, desertion, divorce, drink, promiscuous living
or degeneracy, and cases where the deserted mother was
found living in open shame before her children or where
a father who is a widower was living in open shame
before his children."

Such are fragmentary notes of a district in which a
Chicagoan might pick up as many "Broken Blossoms" as
Thomas Burke found in one quarter of London.

At the corner of 34th and South State streets the Rev.
W. C. Thompson of the Pentecostal Church of Christ
ended a street meeting that was rich and vibrant with
melody. He explained that the police sometimes run him
and his singers off the street, but the meetings would be
kept up until the next time the police took such action.

"New things is comin' altogether diverse from what
they has been," said this preacher In a rush of eloquence,
and twenty voices of men and women shook out irresist-
ible and magnetic melody to a song called "After a
While." The last stanza ran like this:

"Our boasted land and nation is plunging in disgrace
With pictures of starvation in almost every place,
While plenty of needed money remains in horrid piles,
But God's going to rule this nation after a while.

After a while,

After a while,
God's going to rule this nation, after a while."

XIV
AN OFFICIAL OF THE PACKERS

Among the employers, executives and superintendents
of the packing houses, the clashes between white and
colored people in the stockyards and adjacent districts
are not a race question so much as a labor union question,
according to a prominent official of one of the packing
companies.

This official sat in various conferences of yards officials
and state, city and militia officers during the days of riot.
He is familiar with the views of the officials of the large
packing companies and believes that the following ex-
pressions represent the general viewpoint of the packers.

"In the yards It is not a race question at all. It is a
labor union question. We have no objections to the ne-
groes joining the union. We are running an open shop.
The unions want us to run a closed shop. That would
mean we could hire only union men. The unions have
done everything to get the negro Into their membership,
but they haven't got him. That Is the trouble. At one
time, we heard, they had about 90 per cent of all the ne-
groes In the yards in the unions. But they don't stay.

"The trouble is that the negro Is not naturally a good
union man. He doesn't like to pay union dues.

"We are going to take back Into our employ all the
{ negroes who are now away on account of the riots. Just
now it is a good thing for those who have gone too far to
cool off. If we should close down our plants for two

63

64 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

weeks many would realize more clearly what is needed in
this hour.

"There has never been any organized effort on our
part to bring the negro here. The packers' percentage
of increase of negro employes is not greater than that of
any other industry during the war. The steel plants, the
railroads and others increased about the same percentage
we did. High wages was the inducement that drew them
north. We expect that the negro will continue to be the
chief source of surplus labor. In all our experience there
have been no race clashes, no strictly racial trouble, inside
of the yards while the men are working. Their work
requires skill in the handling of axes, cleavers and knives
and if there were any real and lasting race hatred, it
would show itself in violence inside the yards where they
work.

"At the present time 21 per cent of the workers in one
large plant are colored. During the war at the time of
highest pressure they numbered from 24 to 25 per cent.
Before the war they numbered 18 per cent.

"With the negroes away as at present we are able to
operate the plants at only 60 per cent capacity. This low-
ered production and lessened amount of commodities for
the market will have a measurable reflection in prices of
food. It also affects the producers of our raw material.
The farmer who had a bad experience marketing hogs
last week when the shutdown was on because of the riots,
may say to himself that hogs are not the best things to
raise for market.

"Our plant superintendents say that the white men
want the colored workers back on some kinds of work.
Take the beef luggers. They carry on their shoulders

AN OFFICIAL OF THE PACKERS 65

the quarters of beefs. Negroes have always been best
at this."

The following figures represent the distribution of na-
tionalities and race among the employes of Armour &
Co.: 2,052 Poles, 2,000 negroes, 1,372 Lithuanians,
5,167 Americans, 141 Bohemians, 118 Jews, 669 Irish,
41 Greeks, 300 Germans, 150 Slovaks, 56 Mexicans, 205
Russians, 23 Scots, ^^ Italians.

The employes of the other plants are said to be di-
vided in about the same proportions.

XV
MR. JULIUS ROSENWALD INTERVIEWED

At Sears, Roebuck & Co., where the volume of busi-
ness is $200,000,000 a year, where they send out 8,000,-
000 copies a year of the most widely circulated book in
the United States — the Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalogue
— there sits in the administration office the president of
the company, Julius Rosenwald.

In the midst of an array of wall photographs of Greek
parthenons and Egyptian sphinxes there is a large photo-
graph of Booker T. Washington, the negro race leader.
Near at hand is a remarkable collection of books on
the race question.

"If we say the negro must stay in slums and shall
not invade white residence districts, then we shall have
to make more stringent health laws to protect us from
the evils that go with slums," said Mr. Rosenwald. "If
we say the negro must continue to live in slums, we must
prepare for a brighter crime rate.

"They came here because we asked them to come, be-
cause they were needed for industrial service. There is
no solution for the problem apparent now. That is all
the more reason both sides must be fair. It will do no
good to see red.

"With immigration restricted, it will be necessary for
business to seek another source of labor supply. This
exists in the colored population. When they settle here
and become workers in the community they have a right

66

MR. JULIUS ROSENWALD INTERVIEWED 67

to a place to live amid conditions that insure health and
sanitation.

"I know from experience that the negroes are not anx-
ious to invade white residence districts any more than
white people are willing that they should come."

The face of Julius Rosenwald softened.

"The negro is the equal of the white man in brains,'*
said Mr. Rosenwald. "I have talked with men who said
they started with a theory that the negro is inferior,
but when the facts were arrived at, there was no other
conclusion to be derived from those facts than that the
colored man is the equal in intelligence of the white man.

"I attended the graduation ceremonies of this year's
class at Hampton institute in May, the fifty-first anniver-
sary of this negro institution. I heard Columbus^.
Simango tell 'The South African's Story.' Here he was,
straight from the jungles of Africa, a full blooded negro
who came direct from Melsetter, South Rhodesia, to
Hampton institute. His speech, his markings in classes,
his general behavior showed intelligence and competency.
He is a specimen of what can be accomplished by edu-
cation.

"He didn't know he wanted an education till he met
a missionary who told him about Hampton. He walked
200 miles to a port, and was started for America three
times and then turned back by authorities. He arrived
in America a grown young man, unable to read or write.
And now he is able to pass any college examinations in
America.

"Another speaker was a Fisk university man, Isaac
Fisher. He has taken thirty-two prizes offered by news-
papers and magazines in competitions open to all with-
out regard to color. While living in Arkansas, he wrote

68 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat the twelve best reasons
why Missouri Is the best state to live In, and was awarded
the prize. Everybody's Magazine had a contest with
3,000 competitors, and the award of $i,ooo was made to
Isaac Fisher, a type of the pure negro, a little thin fellow
who is all Intelligence."

Mr. Rosenwald quoted Walter HInes Page, a south-
erner, ambassador to Great Britain during the late war,
"The most expensive thing we can do Is not to educate
the negro."

He quoted Booker Washington, from memory, as say-
ing that in some southern states It was found that $i6
per capita was spent on the education of white children
in the public schools and $1.29 yearly on the colored
children, and Washington's comment that such a dis-
parity presumed too much on the intelligence of the eager
blacks.

There are now more than 300 Rosenwald rural schools
in operation in southern states, 300 more partially estab-
lished and 400 others projected. They are maintained by
three cantrlbutors, Mr. Rosenwald, state treasuries and
miscellaneous donors.

XVI
FOR FEDERAL ACTION

The race question Is national and federal. No city
or state can solve it alone. There must be cooperation
between states. And there must be federal handling of it.

This is the view of Major Joel E. Splngarn, recently
returned from service under fire In France and later serv-
ice in the occupied zone in Germany with the 311th In-
fantry. Major Splngarn was for six years chairman of
the National Association for the Advancement of the
Colored People.

*'What is now happening in Chicago has happened In
other large cities, north and south, east and west," said
Major Splngarn. ''With the Initial or igniting occur-
rences out of consideration we have much the same de-
velopments in every case where there are race riots.
Everything considered, the character of the Chicago pop-
ulation and the size of it, the total number of casualties
is surprisingly low.

*'The fact must now be emphasized that the race
problem is not local, but is a national question. It should
have federal attention, and there should be federal aid.
We must frght as a national danger the race hatred that
exists In the south. That particular form of race hatred,
which was one fundamental cause of the civil war, should
not be permitted to spread to other sections.

"The southern neglect of the negro is a national prob-
lem. All the conditions of life that tend to degrade the

69

70 THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS

negro In the south Immediately come Into evidence the
moment there Is a shift of negro population from south
to north. Every circumstance of bad housing, bad sani-
tation, school neglect and economic inequality that exists
In the southern states must be regarded as a national prob-
lem, this more especially In view of the shifts of popu-
lation that are so easy now and which are sometimes an
absolute necessity for the conduct of industry.

**There must be enlightenment of the Intelligent whites
of America on all phases of this problem. The intelli-
gent white man who Is not informed on the neglect and
wrong training of the negro in the south is as dangerous
to future peace and law and order as Is the so-called bad
negro. I have fought for my country two years as a
major of Infantry and I wish to give It as my mature
judgment that no barbarities committed by the Prussians
in Belgium will compare with the brutalities and atrocities
committed on negroes In the south. In effect, you may
say that the negroes who come north have issued from
a system of life and Industry far worse than anything
ever seen under Prussianism In Its worse manifestations.

"Every colored soldier that I have talked with In
France, Germany or America has a grievance. If there
should be a development of bolshevism in this country,
it is plainly evident where these soldiers, at least those
with whom I have talked, would take their stand.

*'One of the most significant features in the Chicago
situation is the stockyards labor union, and the apparent
good will between the two races among the thousands of
white and colored men in that organization. I am told
that about 60 per cent of the stockyard workers are
Poles, and that their leader, John Kirkulski, as well as
the secretary and the 500 shop stewards of the organiza-

FOR FEDERAL ACTION 71

tion, are taking a decisive stand against race prejudice,
violence and anything else than peace and equality be-
fore the law.

*'If this is true and It should be found that among the
70,000 men employed at the packing houses there has
been no violence between white and colored union men,
it may be that this is a high point in history. It Is grati-
fying to hear that the employers at the stockyards recog-
nized months ago that rivalries and bitterness between
union white men and nonunion colored men would make
a bad situation, and therefore they consented to the col-
ored employment agencies recommending to all negroes
applying for jobs that they should join the union. It Is
evident that without these stabilizing influences Chicago
might have had a slaughter running Into hundreds.

*'A commission, consisting of men and women from
both races, should be appointed to Investigate and make
recommendations. Such a commission, if It has the right
people on It, takes the thought of people away from
violence. That was our experience in the Atlanta riots.'*

a

Jytpi'

i

A

"^^0^

jP,

^,^ \J^?^^V^ "V^^^?V^ ^'^^^^n:^^^^

. • • . <>

* O « O ^ A^

o >

.50^